Aika
by Muddy Writer
Summary: A series of Ryosaku one-shots bounded by time.


**Notes from a Muddy Writer:**

And due to my terrible memory, I've forgotten to credit my beta-reader (so sorry!)

Thank you so much Ate Christelle for beta-reading this little one-shot of mine. Hopefully, I won't do this (forgetting stuff T_T) ever again. I'm so sorry again!

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Richard Bach's _**"locks to their keys and keys to their lock."**_And no, I do not own Prince of Tennis.

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_**TIMEr**_

Part 1

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1 minute and 30 seconds.

'I only have to wait one minute and 30 seconds more,' she thought. Her hand unconsciously moved up to her lips. Was her gloss smearing? Her hands traveled upward still. Was her mascara smudging? Her hands made one last move towards her head. Was her hair spiking?!

'Calm down,' she told herself.

There's a lot you can do in a minute or less. She once read that it would only take a person less than a minute to water a plant or file a paper or start the dishwasher. Of course, she couldn't do any of those even if she wanted to. Besides, it wasn't the time to be worrying about such things.

She glanced back at her wrist.

1 minute and 15 seconds.

"In one minute and 15 seconds, I'll meet him," she said to herself, smiling.

Who exactly is _him_?

She doesn't know. Nobody does. What people _do_ know is that once the timer reaches zero, one will meet the _"locks to their keys and keys to their lock."_

In other words, their _soulmate_.

As a 'normal' in-the-late-teens girl, she often dreamt of meeting her soulmate somewhere romantic. Somewhere like the beach or a restaurant.

"I knew I should have gone with them to the beach," she muttered. Why did she even have to change her mind? She still dreamt of being kissed at sunset after meeting her soulmate.

Well, no matter. This'll have to do.

She looked up to admire the sky that was a mix of blue, red, orange and yellow. At least the mall had a glass roof. It allowed as much natural light inside as possible.

A sigh escaped her lips. Glancing back at her wrist, she saw she only had to wait 45 seconds more.

Her heart beat faster, her breathing erratic.

Inhale, exhale. It was all she could do to keep herself from screaming loud out of excitement.

'He's coming, he's coming,' her mind chanted.

With only 45 seconds left or so, her mind wandered to wonder what her soulmate would look like.

An image flashed at the back of her mind.

Disjointed, fragmented.

But enough to have a few key details remain.

Cat-like eyes, green tinged hair.

She frowned. It was odd.

Brown eyes traveled back down to her wrist.

30 seconds.

Her breathing went fast once more and her heart beat like crazy again.

"Sorry." She heard someone say. Her head spun to her left.

A few feet away, her eyes could make out a figure of a man and a woman. The man uttered a few more sorry's. It appeared that the man accidentally poured his coffee all over the woman.

The sunlight struck the man's hair, and the hair glinted a green hue.

She was taken aback.

_Could it be…?_

The timer on her wrist pulled on her eyes. Glancing back at it was inevitable. It continued counting down starting at 10… 9… 8… 7… 6…

She looked back at the man. He was still so preoccupied with the woman.

At that thought, her heart constricted. She couldn't take it if…

Her eyes flew again at the timer on her wrist.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

0.

Tears gathered and soon fell one by one.

He didn't come.

There was no such thing as a soulmate.

It was a lie.

Why did everyone have to get attached with a timer?

What was its purpose?

More tears fell.

She can't believe it.

She pulled at the timer and immediately felt pain throughout her entire right arm.

Darn it. Why did it have to be embedded?! Was what she wanted to scream.

Giving up, she walked away from the scene. She wanted to get out of the mall. It was much too suffocating. She needed to find a way to remove the timer anyway.

One foot forward after the other.

She probably had taken 15 steps or so when _his_ voice glued her feet to the floor.

At that moment, she knew he was the one.

"_Long time no see, Ryuzaki."_

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**Notes from a Muddy Writer:**

Soooo! I'm starting another fic! This one's just a series of one-shots. It will get updated as soon as I get inspired by something I saw on tumblr (that I thought to myself hey! I needed to write something about that!) or just depending on how many prompts/inspiration I get from the reviewers (assuming I get any). Also, I'm going to put a link on my profile the tumblr post that inspired this one-shot. **The main theme I'm trying to string through the entire fic is TIME. **_So send your time-related prompts in your reviews. _This series of one-shot is also a way for me to practice myself during school days since it isn't 'heavy' writing considering that most of it will be one-shots. But take note that some of the one-shots will get a follow-up one-shot. Confusing? Hehehehe. Anyway, I'm still going to update _Legally Married_. Writing this one also helped me escape my temporary writer's block. =D Enjoy! And watch out for the other one-shots.


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